It seems that the emphasis on expanding distribution outweighs the quest for positive operating leverage in the near term.

Merrill saw the most pickup in traditional retail. Morgan Stanley still seems like the problem child.

There's a lot more emphasis placed on torsion and coil and leverage. Basically, the women are being taught very much along the same lines as the men. You don't have to consider strength as a factor so much. These girls are working out like fiends. It's a trend that's going to continue.

The company offers many compelling positives, including a recurring revenue, high operating leverage business model and solid long-term performance,

there's nothing here that really points to any near-term inflationary dangers.

We are pleased with our fourth quarter results which, we believe, again demonstrate the Firm's operating leverage and our ability to improve pricing as demonstrated by another sequential improvement in our flex gross margin and earnings per share. We believe that we can continue to migrate the Firm's flex revenue footprint to higher margin business, and are accelerating our hiring of permanent placement associates as the staffing cycle dynamics remain positive. We believe that our ability to generate cash flows from operations of $22.3 million in the fourth quarter, which are the highest quarterly cash flows from operations in the Firm's history, and our strong balance sheet will enable the Firm to capitalize on opportunities to accelerate our growth.